CULTURAL MEMORY FROM ARCHIVE TO CANON: COMMEMORATION IN IRISH STUDIES AND LEGACY-MAKING FROM THE GREAT FAMINE TO THE DECADE OF CENTENARIES
CULTURAL MEMORY FROM ARCHIVE TO CANON: COMMEMORATION IN IRISH STUDIES AND LEGACY-MAKING FROM THE GREAT FAMINE TO THE DECADE OF CENTENARIES

Summary/Abstract: Cultural Memory from Archive to Canon: Commemoration in Irish Studies and Legacy-making from the Great Famine to the Decade of Centenaries. The field of Irish Studies has constantly evolved, shifting its focus from nationalist and postcolonial approaches to become more comprehensive by adopting interdisciplinary perspectives. In this mutable realm, more emphasis has been placed on the continuing importance of the past. Accordingly, this field has rested upon past legacies. In this regard, commemorations can be considered as concrete and ostensible representations of past legacies. The gaps identified in the literature include the lack of focus on the legacies of the past in commemorative actions and the lack of emphasis on connecting the past with other temporal dimensions, such as the present and the future. Building on these lacunae, this paper assesses commemorations in Ireland from the perspective of Cultural Memory. This research adopts the concepts of archive and canon to scrutinize commemorative practices in Ireland and examine how they can operate as legacy-making tools. Additionally, this paper suggests that Irish commemoration can be understood as a process of canonization, which facilitates the selection of historical archives and transforms them into legacies. This research maintains that Irish commemorative practices, including the 1990s Great Famine memorials and the Decade of Centenaries, can be seen as acts of canonization. It focuses on analyzing the commemoration of the Great Irish Famine in the 1990s and the Decade of Centenaries commemorative attempt that was conducted from 2012 to 2023. By examining these commemorative initiatives, this work demonstrates their role in sustaining past legacies, making them relevant in the temporal contexts of the present and the future. This paper contributes to debates on the studies of commemorations in Irish Studies and suggests the integration of cultural memory to assess Irish legacies and their relevance in the present and future tenses.

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